A walk was the chief way of taking in a landscape garden in the late eighteenth century, and it was chiefly for walks that landscape gardens were intended. They were composed to present a series of images, as well as a stage for the stylized movement of visitors. The visitors were spectators and also became actors: they were the living staffage of the landscape scene, as is clear from the instructions of the time and from depictions of movement in the outdoors. A walk was not undertaken with the aim of being alone, but was in essence a social act. The landscape garden changed landscape into real nature and real nature into a scene of human self-awareness by way of socialization. In this context direct experience of the body or corporeality of the individual was applied to an extent corresponding to the programme of landscape gardens. This programme was, regardless of the size of the garden, highly complex, and the overall shaping of the garden emphasized freedom of choice, despite the existence of an ideal or official itinerary of its visitors. The essay takes examples mainly from the garden at Schonhof (Northwestern Bohemia, built in 1780s) as well as from its contemporary descriptions.
The first part of the study treats the genesis of the Prague monument and its political, local and artistic context. Marshal Radetzky (Radecký) was a native of Bohemia and victor in battles in Italy in 1848-1849. The monument links the ambitions of the Prague 'Kunstverein', which commissioned it, with the broader Austrian programme. By contrast, the interests of the designer of the monument, the Director of the Academy of Arts Christian Ruben, clashed in the work with the local artistic milieu. The second part of the study provides an overview of the iconography of the central motif of the monument: the elevation of the main figure on a shield. This ceremony was in use in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages in various contexts. The most important account was provided by Tacitus (Hist. 4, 15), according to whom the Germanic tribe of Batavians, before going into battle with the Romans, chose their leader Brino by setting him on a shield and lifting him above the heads of the warriors. The publication of Tacitus' complete works (1515) contributed to a revival of this formula; the 'Tacitus renaissance' had a fundamental influence on political ideas, particularly in Germany and Holland. Illuminations of Byzantine manuscripts included the motif of elevation on a shield; it appeared in the West after the middle of the 15th century. The study reconstructs the tradition of this motif in art from the 16th to the 19th century. The third part is concerned with the semantics of the Prague monument and how it was received at the time in the context of politics and sculptural conventions. The monument was a happy compromise between diverse requirements, but it was also an object of criticism based, among other things, on the ambivalence of the main motif in the work. The celebration of military victory was discredited when the status that Austria had hitherto enjoyed was undermined. The ambivalence of the commander/ruler and the possibility of treating the motif in sculpture gave rise to doubts. From this last perspective, however, the originality of the Radetzky monument, which Ruben's opponents questioned, corresponded to the historicism and eclecticism of the period and is remarkable from today's point of view, too.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.